Top 5 tips for blogging

Bloggers are like a coffee shop they are popping up every where , why alone as I am typing this a blog is popping about about some genre or other. I have been blogging 2 years now and I still don't understand it all, bloggers are always swapping tips as is natural. Blogging can be confusing especially to an outsider it need not be; so what advice would I give to a newbie blogger so here are my five tops tips though I can see it being longer than 5 tips.

1. Know what you are going to write about, don't blog angry or cross and if you do feel like doing that write the blog post in draft and read it back another day when you are calm. And if you have no idea what to write about just take the most common of things and perhaps blog about that the weather, time , messy rooms when you get thinking there is no shortage of ideas.

Just go crazy with your ideas.

2. Find a platform you are happy on with me, it's Blogger I am know what I am doing , I think and yet when I have problems I said to me " abandon it" and go to wordpress. Though if I had persevered with Wordpress those people would have been saying abandon Wordpress and go to Blogger. Find what platform you want to blog with and stick with it unless it becomes so annoying then change , whatever you do you will find no shortage of people wanting to help.


3. Mix it up I can not stress this enough mix up it up don't have a string of review after review ( that said there are such blogs than are excellent with this as they come at the topic with a truly personal and unique perspective.)


4. Don't get bogged down in stats and comments , though I bet a penny to a pound in a hour I'll be lamenting woo is me no one has commented. Seriously though as much as comments feel like you are being appreciated for what you do, some where someone. Make your blog post sticky with keywords so say if its about tea then perhaps extend it to the best tea to drink in the morning etc , etc.


5 DON"T worry about about fusion of  ideas for either a title,a theme or blog posts etc  just look at mine its cat, food, parenting reviews etc you might think the fusion idea won't work it will. Though having said that I have since discovered that Hoison duck on a pizza with slices of cucumber and Soy sauce is more CONfusion than my little tummy can handle.

Britmums I came , I saw I conquered

Britmums I went with anticipation despite having gone before , I really was scared witless at the event it's a melting pot of people , personalities not everyone will necessarily like each other for what ever reason. But even if you end up being next to someone you ( or they )don't see eye to eye with (yourself )or if you see someone from afar being at Britmums forces you into being together.

And it's a real testament to yourself and other people to be polite not a false politeness but a professional what I say blogging attitude. After all don't worry about what you can't change, concentrate on what you can.

Some sessions those perhaps of the keynotes will and do take you out of your comfort zone upsetting yes but without social and personal challenge sometimes we will not grow ourselves.and there is no shortage of blogging friends that will offer you a shoulder to cry or just a hug. Now I am not a huggy person but I seem to have been hugged left right and centre, now usually I would recoil from such a situation but not this time as it was a social solidarity.

I have fears

Of course I do ..

After all I am only human

And I was Ill at Britmums (I really was) 

I hope no one reads anything into this.

I try my best and always will.

I'm marmite to some people I really am.

But Britmums friends become like family.

"Death by social media " I'm trying my very best not to.

Coming to grips with situations I cannot change.

I want to live my life not fight against it!

Britmums for me pulls these threads together as thoughts are very much like threads jumbled in a mess quite a lot of the time and it's a social situation like Britmums that weaves them together.

I hope this makes sense.

And I'll see you next year.

Butlin's holiday memories

I remember when my son was four and he was a small speck of a child ! we took him to Butlin's at Skegness for the day and he had such fun ,I remember going on the Noddy rides that were there. Noddy was a favourite of his at the time though, if I was to mention this to him now he would no doubt cringe with embarrassment. We had only gone there as day visitors and I remember thinking on what was a practically hot scorching August day as we saw families laughing and smiling on their way to the pool. How I wish that we had book ourselves into Butlin's, as everyones faces were a picture of happiness , the day was magical and no request was to big or to small for the Butlins staff. 

My husband is from a large family, he is the youngest of seven children ( he 's now 43 but don't tell I told you his age !) , six boys and one girl so his parents had a very busy time with that large brood and when they took their holidays their place of choice was Butlin's . The reason for this was cost and satisfaction guaranteed,and with a great variety of activities no one was ever bored.

Butlin's Skegness in the 1960s.

Four of my husbands siblings at Butlin's Skegness.

Husbands twin brothers at Butlin's!

Ballroom dancing at Butlin's Skegness 1960s.

Dancing competition at Butlin's Skegness 1960s with a fairground in the background.

Butlin's Skegness accomodation 1960s.

My husbands late mother at Skegness Butlin's.

In those days there such competitions as lovely legs! but nowadays the competitions are much more suitable! 

The range of activities at Butlin's these days is mind blowing there's nothing that you can not do there , from live entertainment. a traditional fairground and even luxury spa treatments. Butlin's really does, span the generations from young to old everyone will feel right at home. Unlike the 1960s the traditional fairground is now a permanent feature.

There is a choice of accommodation to meet peoples different tastes from comfy rooms, well equipped apartments or one of their contemporary hotels.




So you see the Butlin's aim is still the same as it was all those years ago in the Billy Butlins era to make sure you get your sparkle back as a family.




Disclosure Sponsered post I was not told what to write, all thoughts words and opinions are my own.

Wordless Wednesday with Jack Black

Magpie Monday The Cake edition

Today was an inset today and I needed to  relax, rest and unwind still after an arduous week emotions can take you prisoner if you let them and people can and will take what you say out of context  . THE ANSWER ( sorry bit shouty  there ) the answer is cake . I took the bus into town where I went to Costa to use a gift card I had won and had a healthy sandwich and a latte and watched the world go by.

I had tried earlier in the week to use my Costa gift card at the local cinema where obviously there is a Costa only to be told it was a franchise Costa and not a real Costa Coffee. SO  they had Costa uniforms, sold Costa Coffee and had humongous signs that said "Costa Coffee" ... Oh well.

I mooched around town dipping into the charity shops as I do I was just beaten to some antique type scales by a Norwegian lady ... darn. But I managed to pick up an old style mincer the type that "Grandma" used to have and reminiscent of the times I remember when she was making Cornish pasties though if you wanted her to make you some ( you had to buy your own mince ) she was a mad as a box of frogs mind .

I then after buying some glass chopping boards(cupcake designs) which were half price at £4.99 from the local posh store Bennett's think Grace Brothers from "Are you being served?" and you are not half wrong. I then went for a cup of tea and cake at the Cathedral tea room that serve their tea is real bone china and again a slice of cake and pot of tea will set you back around £4.30.

Thinking I hadn't got anything in for tea I headed for good old M & S or as my mum used to call it Marks and Sparkles. The £10 meal deal was on and I picked chicken breast , potato croquettes and some millionaire desserts, also a Strawberry cake that had 25 % off just happen to leapt into my basket!

With the meal deal comes a choice of wine either alcoholic or non alcoholic but there was only a angry looking red on the rack ( one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse of bad  wines) I spotted another customer stalking an M & S employee who was after a better bottle of plonk ( for the want of a better phrase) So I joined in the stalking the M & S employee who was called John 20 minutes later after John had gone through the good wine selection I came away with a nice peachy number by that I mean a bottle of wine and not the M & S employee. I said that a cakes had happen to fall into my basket to which he said" There is always a need for cake"

I agree .. don't you

The cake was £3.74

Disclosure ( I am not to blame for any calories you intake after reading this blog post )